The package is basically a full ride, covering all but $168 dollars and books. It is a great school with a really strong honors college and many academic peers. Also if you consider it, check out the Clark Scholars summer research program and the McDermott Scholars Program.

I do think, over time, that these programs of awarding scholarships to the most able students will pay off (on average - no one thinks that a PSAT score is the be all and end all for intelligence testing).

Southern states are leading the way here, especially Florida with its Benacquisto program now open to OOS, and Texas.

@Mnacttutor the reason it's not with the rest of the scholarship is because it's the portion that comes directly from NMSC.

Your National Merit Scholarship check from NMSC will not arrive until approximately the middle of September. Once received, we will deposit it on your behalf, and the university will then send the money to you via direct deposit. We will email you once the checks have arrived.

How necessary is it to write an essay for the UTD app? It looks like it is an optional essay, which normally I would interpret as required. But if son is likely to be a NMF, can he get away with no essay? Or does that just look bad?

As hardly any top school gives money for any merit, let alone NMSF, lower ranking schools like UTD benefit from it. However, I must add that only few of my children’s high achiever friends even considered UTD. Ones who did had pressure from controlling Asian parents, who wanted kids to stay home or nearby and go pre-Med.

@CupCakeMuffins I know plenty of high achieving kids that picked UTD over move "prestigious" schools. My son was an auto-admit to UT Austin. One of his roommates from outside Atlanta turned down Georgia Tech to go to UTD.

@CupCakeMuffins Definitely not the case at my son's school. Last year #2 and #3 both (both NMFs) picked UTD and neither have controlling parents nor Asian parents. For middle to upper-middle class families UTD or other universities offering full rides is a great choice, especially if the plan is medical school in which case the undergrad university's ranking doesn't matter that much. Much better to start medical school with no debt than $200K debt...

My DD turned down UT Austin CS for UTD as well as UNC and several other higher ranked schools. UTD gave her opportunities that she could not have done at the other schools because of her scholarship including travel abroad and flexibiltiy to study numerous areas. She got a great internship and is getting her masters in 4 years all on scholarship. What more could we ask for.